DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO (I THINK BY NOW ALL THE READERS OF MY FIC UNDERSTAND THIS ALREADY HAHA)
Reveal and Conceal
- At The Seventh Training Grounds -
Naruto was reading a book under a tree on their team's training grounds, it was a new book he borrowed from the archives. He asked for Keiji's help once again to aid him in finding a scroll/book about sensory abilities because he wanted to hone his skills in terms of sensing/detecting allies and/or foes in his surroundings.
Naruto knew very little about sensor ninjas other than the fact that some of his friends were sensor ninjas themselves. People like Shino use his bugs to sense what is going on around him. Hinata uses her clan's doujutsu which grants her an almost 360-degree field of vision that spans quite a large distance. Last is Kiba, who utilizes his keen sense of smell as well as his pet dog Akamaru to track down almost anything.
Naruto was slowly learning the importance of their job which made him want to improve his own aptitude when it comes to said skill, the only problem is that he has no idea how he was going to do it.
He can't ask Shino for help since he can't use the Aburame clan's affinity for commanding bugs. The same goes for Hinata and Kiba, for their skills are linked to their genetics, Naruto sighed since he was stumped at the moment
Naruto then noticed someone approaching him, he looked up from his book to see Ino but something was different about her though.
"Oh hey, Ino?…"
"Hey Naruto, what's with the look you're giving me?" she raised her eyebrow
"Nothing much, I just… Noticed you have a different hairstyle today" Naruto replied
Ino's hairstyle wasn't her usual ponytail and bangs framing the right side of her face. Today her hairstyle was similar to how it looked when she was a young child, the only difference is the length of her hair (Refer to how she looked even before she was a Genin, IE: First time meeting Sakura).
"Oh… I just felt like changing things up, does it look bad?" she said as she was about to get her hair tie in her pocket
"Nah, it looks good actually" he said with a smile
Ino blushed slightly which prompted her to cease her search for her hair tie, she notice Naruto was reading a book but she noticed that it was a new one.
"Reading a new book?"
"Yep"
"What's it about?"
"It's about sensory abilities, really got my ass whooped during our last training session"
"Yeah… Asuma-sensei wasn't kidding about stepping it up against us"
"I mean… I initially thought I was good at hiding and stuff, not until Asuma-sensei showed me otherwise. I don't know how the heck he keeps on finding me first and not you or Shino. But my main problem is finding him, I had a hard time locating where he's at when it was our turn to find him"
"Shino was the only one who was able to find him, though I was able to find him once though, I think that was just a fluke"
"Well I plan on improving my skills when it comes to that and I'll be great at it soon enough dattebayo!"
As Ino and Naruto were talking, they then saw Shino approaching them from afar. Naruto waved at Shino to which he nodded in response, "Hey there Shino, what's up?" Naruto greeted him
"Good to see the both of you and to answer your question Naruto, not much" Shino replied
"Seems like Asuma-sensei is late again…" Naruto said
"*sigh* Apparently so… And for the record Naruto, the reason why Asuma-sensei was able to find you first every single time is that your hiding spots are kinda obvious. Asuma-sensei is a Jounin after all, so you got to try harder than that. Now, look what happened? Asuma-sensei kept throwing shurikens and kunais at you and now your jacket is all tattered"
"What?… It's still fine Ino, don't worry about it. And yes I guess you do have a point about my hiding spots"
"It has tons of holes Naruto..." she said to him
"My jacket is still fine… Right Shino?" he turned to him
Shino adjusted his glasses and cleared his throat, "Unfortunately Naruto, I have to agree with Ino on this one. You might want to get some new clothing Naruto" Shino interjected
"See?! Shino gets it, so you better consider updating your wardrobe soon enough Naruto" Ino said to which Naruto sighed, she did have a point though. Naruto was hesitant about entertaining the idea of changing his outfit, he had sentimental reasons as well since he has been wearing the same outfit for so long. Eventually, Naruto relented and told Ino he'll think about it.
The three of them continued to talk for around thirty minutes after which Asuma arrived and greeted them all. He apologized for being late, again. The two blondes demanded a proper answer whereas Shino remained silent.
"I uhhh… Helped an old lady along the way, y-yeah!... That's why I'm late" he answered
Both blondes knew that he was giving them a half-assed answer, they let their sensei slide for the nth time for there was no point to it. "What are we doing today Asuma-sensei?" Ino asked.
"We are doing a ton of things today so listen up, I am not going to repeat myself. Yesterday we did some drills and exercises akin to hide and seek. As shinobi, we must be able to hide our location and have the ability to locate where our foes are. This is the art of sensing chakra signatures, I am pretty sure this was taught back at the academy, can anyone tell me what a chakra signature is?" Asuma asked
"Oh sweet! I just read about it a while ago hehe, chakra signatures are unique to each individual. It can be affected by all sorts of things like your affinity for an element, or the clan you belong to, some people even claim that a person's personality affects it as well but they also stated to take that information with a grain of salt" Naruto answered
Asuma was impressed, he had to give this one to Naruto even though he just read about it moments ago coincidentally. "Well done Naruto. And with this information, we can do all sorts of stuff. A shinobi can pinpoint the location of their ally/foe, it depends on how good they are at it. There are cases where an enemy might pretend to be an ally using the Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique), you could easily solve that problem if you are able to familiarize yourself with the chakra signatures of your comrades. Overall, this skill is really beneficial to the three of you in the long run. The three of you need to work on hiding your chakra signatures, and I'll be helping all of you but since Shino passed the exercises where you guys needed to find me with flying colors, you may work on something else for now while I deal with these blondies over here" Asuma teased both Naruto and Ino, both blondes glared at him for that remark.
"But that doesn't mean you can't improve your sensory skills even more Shino, all of you must remember that there is always room for improvement even if you think you're already at a good spot. Being content with your skills is not inherently bad, but it may lead to stagnation which affects a ninja's skills. Am I being clear here?" he asked his students and all of them understood.
Shino then excused himself to go train somewhere else so that he is out of the way, this now left Naruto and Ino with their sensei. "So what are we going to do now Asuma-sensei" Ino asked
"I want you two to mold chakra but don't create anything, just amass some of it" he said to the both of them
Naruto and Ino did as they were told and began to mold chakra, "What now?" Naruto said
"Tell me, what do you two feel when you amassed chakra?" Asuma replied
"Well… To me it felt like I was lighting a flame inside my body, I'm not really sure though" Naruto said
"Yeah me too" Ino added
"Okay good, that is a nice way to visualize it. Now here is what you two need to understand, pretty much everything around us has chakra, well except for non-living things of course. Chakra pretty surrounds us essentially, with that knowledge we can do the following things: locate individuals, determine if someone is about to perform a jutsu, or just know more about someone namely what chakra nature they use. But the real question is, how does one exactly do those things? Like most things, it comes with practice. The more you improve your skills in sensing chakra, the more precise your findings will be. This means that the better you are, the more accurate your information is. Are you two still following?" Asuma asked.
"Yep, so far so good" Ino said and Naruto nodded in agreement
"Alright, now this is where the exercises begin" he said as he handed the two blondes their own blindfold. "I want the both of you to wear these and cover your eyes, no cheating obviously. Cheating is basically self-sabotage, understood?" he said and both of them agreed
"I will be creating a clone of myself behind one of those wooden poles, it is your job to figure out which is hiding a clone behind it" Asuma instructed
"Sounds simple enough, could you uh… Mold some chakra Asuma-sensei, so that we could get a feel for it" Naruto requested to which Asuma obliged. He began to mold some of his chakra to give Naruto and Ino a rough idea of what they needed to look for.
Once that was done, both blondes wore their respective blindfolds and began their exercise. This continued for a couple of hours, both blondes were beginning to get the hang of it but not enough to be on par with full-fledged sensor ninjas. Naruto was able to answer the right pole 28 out of 50 times which equates to a 56% percent chance of being right whereas Ino got it right 30 out of 50 times which is 60% percent. Asuma was pretty satisfied with their progress given that this was their first time doing these sorts of tests, this was a good sign that they would only get better with enough time and practice.
"Naruto, go make a clone and fetch Shino. It is time for the next lesson and that involves the three of you" he said to Naruto. Naruto did as he was told and created a clone of himself and ordered said clone to get Shino
Once Shino was with them, Asuma began teaching their next lesson. "Okay now that I'm done teaching these two the fundamentals of chakra detection, it is now time for learning about chakra concealment. Now, this is the polar opposite of what you two learned earlier, you are now tasked to hide yourselves instead of finding someone. This explains the exercises we did yesterday, this pretty much ties into that. There are two common ways to hide your location, you can either disguise your chakra signature or disperse your chakra in a given area. Sure you could hide and not bother dealing with your chakra signature, but a well-seasoned sensor will be able to sniff out your location, and then you're done for. I will begin by explaining the differences between the two methods, the first one is simply changing what your chakra signature looks like. One can alter it with enough practice to make it indiscernible, this would go great with the Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Technique) example I provided earlier. Not only is your appearance different but also your chakra signature, this makes it more difficult for sensors to find you. I will be teaching you a jutsu for this. Using this jutsu provides a ton of avenues for you to use, you can hide your chakra signature, alter it to make it look large or small, make it seem like it is coming from a different location, and there are even cases where you can copy someone else's chakra signature but that's a skill available to those who have mastered this jutsu"
"But what about those camouflage jutsus we learned about in the academy, like the Meisaigakure no Jutsu (Hiding with Camouflage Technique)?" Ino commented
"Good observation Ino, well the answer to your question is quite simple. It only hides your body visually but a keen sensor can easily spot you or anyone with a doujutsu, heck even making a sound will blow your location. This is why I want to teach the three of you this nifty jutsu, the Chakra Henso no Jutsu (Chakra Disguise Technique). The hand seals are simple, it goes as follows: Horse - Ram - Boar - Tiger. But before performing the hand seals, you must visualize how you want others to perceive your chakra signature. And do keep in mind, that this jutsu may fail to deceive others so be sure to use this at your discretion.
Shino, Ino, and Naruto then began practicing using the jutsu Asuma just thought them. They altered their chakra signatures multiple times so that they could get a feel for the jutsu and get the hang of it. After a couple of tries, Asuma then taught the other method. The dispersion method, "Now that I have taught the three of you the first method, it is now time for the second method. This is technically a way to conceal your true location but is only used if and when your location has been compromised. What you need to do is to spread your chakra in a certain area in an attempt to throw off pursuers. The more evenly you scatter your chakra, the better. The idea behind this is that if your chakra signature is everywhere, it'll be much harder for your foes to track you down not unless they have a clan similar to the Aburame or the Inuzuka which I highly doubt" Asuma explained.
"But how do we do that then Asuma-sensei?" Naruto asked
"I'll get to that Naruto, there is still one more important drawback to this method. It requires a sizeable amount of chakra to pull off, essentially you are throwing away chakra. You are not deliberately wasting chakra, no. It's just that you are using more chakra than what need by using the first method. Which makes this a niche technique, both methods are viable but this slightly better in an objective point of view as it guarantees your success in concealing your true location" Asuma added.
"Now what you are going to do is to infuse the air around you with your own chakra. To do that, you must imagine the air as a medium or conductor that will receive your chakra. Your chakra will then linger around the area for a period of time, enough time for you to breath or do whatever you need to do in a given situation" Asuma said to his three students who were intently listening.
They practiced performing said technique a couple of times so as to not deplete their chakra reserves, Naruto on the hand, had the freedom to practice this as much as he wanted due to his monstrous chakra reserves. Once they finished with that, Asuma then taught them their third and final lesson for that day. And the lesson is about chakra natures.
"Alright final lesson, so listen carefully cause it is about chakra natures. Can anyone tell me the five natures?" he asked
"Easy! Earth, Wind, Fire, Water,
and Lightning" Ino answered
"Excellent, all shinobi possess at least one of these chakra natures. Some possess two, and some even have more than two like Hokage-sama. He has mastery over all chakra natures including other natures like Yin and Yang but those are not important for now. We are tackling about the main five, each person has a dominant nature within them. It is somewhat rare for someone to have more than one affinity but I digress. An example is the Uchiha clan, their main specialty is using the fire nature which means members of their clan will inherently have an affinity for it. Though there is a common misconception, that having an affinity for an element doesn't mean you have two dominant chakra natures within you, no. It just means it is easier for you to tap into that nature and use it with relative ease compared to others" he explained to them as he took out sheets of paper and gave one to each.
"What are we supposed to do with these Asuma-sensei?" Naruto asked
Shino then cleared his throat and answered Naruto's question, "I believe these are what we call Chakra Paper, it is used to determine what chakra nature you are most inclined to" he interjected
"Spot on Shino, and yes I want to know what chakra natures you guys have. So kindly stream your chakra into these pieces of paper and let's have a look, let's start with you Ino" he said whilst looking at her
"Please let it be good" Ino crossed her fingers are she poured her chakra into the piece of paper, her chakra paper lit on fire and turned into ash
"Fire chakra nature I see, your turn Shino" Asuma said
Shino poured chakra into his and his chakra paper turned into dirt and crumbled away, "Earth chakra nature then, now you Naruto" he said as he turned his attention towards Naruto
"My chakra nature would be cool I bet dattebayo!" he said as he streamed his chakra into it but suddenly a strong gust of wind blew the chakra paper from his hand. "Damnit! I didn't get to see what my chakra nature is..." he said
"Don't worry about it Naruto, I have more chakra paper" he said as he gave another one to Naruto. "Go ahead and do it again" he said to him
Naruto then did as he was told and suddenly the piece of paper lit on fire as well much like Ino's chakra paper earlier
"Hey, we both have fire chakra nature!" Ino said joyfully
"Alright! I knew it was gonna be cool! But what now?" Naruto said
"What do you mean?" Asuma asked
"Aren't you going to teach us some jutsus?" Naruto asked
"I mean I could but my main chakra nature is wind and I can also tap into fire nature if I wanted to, I do know some techniques using different natures but they aren't as strong compared to actual users of that nature. This would just help you figure out what jutsus you should master as of right now, since mastering other natures you don't have an affinity for is considerably harder" Asuma explained
"I see... Well is there more we need to know Asuma-sensei?" Naruto replied
"There is more to know about this topic but I suggest you three read more about it, you can go in-depth about it since there are so many things to learn about this" Asuma returned
Their discussion took a couple more minutes and they finished before lunchtime when Asuma decided that was enough for now. Since they have been training so hard, he decided to treat his students to grab some lunch.
"Alright, that's enough training for now. It's almost lunchtime and you three have been training hard for today, I recently received extra pay cause I'm damn good at my job. As a reward for your hard work, lunch is on me. So where do you kiddies want to eat?" Asuma asked
Shino didn't answer anything since he stated that he was fine with whatever food place they picked, "I was thinking we should eat at that place called Miyazaki's, I heard that-" he was cutoff when Ino suggested otherwise
"NO! NOT THERE ASUMA-SENSEI!" she said all of a sudden
This caught Asuma off-guard which made him wonder why Ino had a sudden outburst, "What? Why? I heard they serve good food there" he asked
"Sorry about that Asuma-sensei, I mean yeah they serve good food there but customer service is awful" she argued
"Really? Kure- I mean someone I know told me otherwise" Asuma corrected himself
Ino and Naruto smirked at their sensei's mistake but decided to set the thought aside, "You see Asuma-sensei… Ino and I ate there the other day and uhhh… Things got a bit heated there" Naruto explained
"Go on…"
Ino sighed and explained to their sensei what really happened back then, she told him that she defended Naruto's right to be treated properly as a paying customer. Asuma was glad that Ino was already looking out for her teammates and friends, a true sign of camaraderie.
"Alright then, any other ideas?" he asked his students
"How about Yakiniki-Q?" Ino suggested
"Sure let's go with that, you guys go on ahead and I'll catch up" Asuma said to which his students headed to the restaurant
Asuma was proud of his students, they were making strides in growing as fine shinobi. He was right about them having potential, "They'll be fine shinobi soon enough, I guarantee it" Asuma mused to himself as he walked out of the training grounds. He stopped in his tracks only to find two pieces of paper on the ground, this confused him. "The wind blew only one piece of paper, right? Not unless..." Asuma said to himself as he thought about it more.
- At Yakiniku-Q -
Team 10 was seated in a booth, a waitress already provided them with an assortment of meat they can cook on the built-in stove their table had. It was Naruto's first time here, meaning that he did not know how to properly cook the meat whereas Shino, Ino, and Asuma knew what they were doing since they have been there once or twice in the past.
Naruto was about to eat a piece of meat that looked undercooked not until Ino slapped his hands and told him not to, "Don't eat that yet Naruto, it's not yet even fully cooked" she said
"What do you mean? It's already brown and kinda charred" he countered
"Just because it looks cooked doesn't mean it is, seriously Naruto what would you ever do without me…" she said as she took the meat Naruto was about to consume and cooked it herself. Once the meat was done cooking, she took her chopsticks and brought them to Naruto's mouth to feed the meat to him.
Shino didn't react whereas Asuma found it to be amusing, "Since when did these two become this close? Kurenai would want to hear about this" he thought to himself as he drank from his cup.
Naruto on the other hand was completely oblivious to what Ino was doing, he ate the cooked piece of meat that Ino prepared for him. Naruto thanked her and took another piece of meat, this time cooking it for much longer just like what Ino did a while ago.
After feeding Naruto, it then hit Ino with what she had just done. She blushed internally due to the realization that she just fed Naruto herself. She wasn't berating herself, No. She was shocked that she did it subconsciously. "What the heck was I doing" she said to no one but herself.
(A/N: A mix of training and some wholesome action haha, also! Vonta01 yes you are right! It is inspired by Better Left Unsaid by Kenchi618 and many more NaruIno fics I have read like Grin and Bear it by Jetshinsei, Flowershop Romance by Yoijimbra, Sealed Kunai by Kenchi yet again, Ease This Broken Heart by SkyMaiden, The Good Wife by Reira Kurenai, Naruto: Altered History by Geor-sama, Waves by Rafael Fitchburne, The Line by livezinshadows. Gosh! these authors have really inspired me to make my own fic about these two lovable blondes (I have a thing for blondes T _ T plz don't judge haha). If any of you are reading this, just want to say I'm a huge fan! Also, I wish my fic would soon be considered a good NaruIno fanfic that people would recommend to others haha. Also did you notice the reference to September? HAHA go ahead and find it. Next is why did I give Naruto fire? Read closely you'll see what I mean. Also the Chakra Henso no Jutsu has no real hand seals, I just made it up so yea. Lastly thanks for the continued support and interaction, I truly appreciate it. Ogremen, if you're reading this sorry for not replying enough. I was busy and stuff haha so yea will reply soon tho and yea show me some love RnR and cheers )
P.S. Vonta01, I am not that good with chem haha I just like the subject XD